I wish you and your families and loved ones a ferventAdvent and a Blessed Christmas Season filled with peace and joy. May you taste deeply “the peace of God, which surpasses all our understanding and which keeps our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4;7)

As we bow before the mystery of God coming to us as a Baby we contemplate God’s love for the world and His unconditional care for His children till the end. We thank God and rejoice that we are the “little ones” in His Kingdom because this qualifies us to come very close to Jesus, the vulnerable Baby in the manger and to our crucified Jesus on Calvary.

The world offers us solutions which are instant and painless. Jesus offers us the narrow way, which orders our lives by putting God first, and seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness. Mother did not offer us solutions. She walked the narrow way of self-denial and total self-gift in all circumstances, loving until it hurts. She always gave God the first place in her life and heart.

Mother brought us to Jesus.

- When we were drawn to seek comfort and ease, our Mother took us to the poor Jesus in the crib, to Jesus who had nowhere to lay His head, to Jesus on the cross deprived of all things.

- When we wanted justice and claimed our rights, our Mother showed us Jesus who suffered and died to forgive our sins so that we also forgive others.

- When we were crushed by sickness and pain, our Mother made us aware of how close Jesus had come to us, so to be able to kiss us.

- When we felt lonely and useless, our Mother convinced us that Jesus loves us and needs us, and that Mother loves us and needs us.

- When our hearts were restless, confused and weighed down by failure and sin, our Mother led us gently to Jesus in the Eucharist who gives rest to the tired and heavily burdened.

- When we were found negligent, careless and unkind in our families, workplaces, neighborhood and schools, our Mother brought us to see Jesus who suffers in the least of His brothers and sisters.

At Bethlehem the Holy Family was refused food, shelter and listening heart. Our Lady and our Mother will help us to recognize Jesus in the lonely, the downcast and the rejected, to welcome them with joy and to make room for them in our hearts. Let us make that strong resolution that none in my family and among those I meet daily is made to feel unloved and unwanted by me.

Some of you may know Sr Anand M.C. who was appointed by Mother to take over from Jacqueline de Decker the work of linking the sisters with the Sick & Suffering Co-Workers since 1996, has now handed over the work to Sr Rajini M.C.. Please pray for Sr. Anand M.C. who happily celebrated her 96th birthday this year.

In Kolkata, pilgrims and tourists keep flocking to pray at Mother’s tomb, carrying all kinds of intentions that they know they can entrust to Mother. Although you may never had the chance to come to Kolkata, we place all your prayers and intentions on Mother’s tomb.

May you, your families and loved ones come close together this Christmas around Jesus in the crib and draw from Him the love, joy and peace to share with all those you meet.

Wishing you God’s tender love during this Christmas Season and the New Year 2018.

During this Holy Season of lent when we prepare for Easter, Jesus invites us to draw closer to Him in His Passion, Together with Our lady and our I Mother, St, Teresa of Calcutta, let us follow Jesus all the way to the Cross on Calvary.

Jesus knew from the beginning every detail of the terrible suffering He was to undergo in the sight of the people. With faith and love, He accepted all of it recognizing it as the Father’s Will and Plan of Redemption. All of us have our share of troubles great and small. Prayer and interior fervor should enable us to recognize in them the Cross of Christ, and assist us to accept them with faith and love.

Do we not sometimes wonder why God is not answering our prayers? Faith is not just believing that God can answer our prayers. Faith calls us to make sacrifices and acts of surrender to the Will of God. 3f I pray without giving up a resentment, auger, a dislike, a sinful habit or an infidelity, Jesus will ask me to surrender it to Him. Mother was able to say with full confidence, "God does not refuse me anything because I do not refuse Him anything."

Our troubles great and small may lead us to discouragement, fears, feelings of hurt, loneliness and guilt. When our hearts are hurting, our minds may fill with thoughts of self-pity, self-defense, grumbling and blaming. We must immediately renounce them resolutely. We must train our hearts to freely choose to love. Every suffering we lovingly accept in faith and unite to the sufferings of Jesus increases our holiness. May Our lady and our Mother obtain for us love that does not count the cost, but just gives.

Our sisters are serving the poorest of the poor in 760 houses around the world.

On the 13th of May, we plan to open cur second hou3e in Baghdad, Iraq. The first house, begun by Mother in 1991 serves handicapped children. The new house, the

Sisters hope to give a home for abandoned men. Sometime after the Feast of the

Sacred Heart, which falls this year on 28 June, our contemplative sisters will open a house in Rreshen, Albania. The Bishop asked for contemplative sisters, recognizing that their prayers and sacrifices have priority over all the urgent material and pastoral needs of his people.

This year, the Archdiocese of Calcutta was c to seen to host the World Day of the Sick, which is celebrated to bring to a greater awareness the dignity of the sick as well as the privilege and responsibility of persons involved in the care of the physically and mentally sick in institutions and families. The delegates, including Patrick Cardinal D’Rozario, Archbishop of Dhaka, Bangladesh and Papal Envoy for World Day of the Sick, and Peter Cardinal Kbdwo Appiah Turkson of Ghana, Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, attended Holy Mass at our Mother- house and visited our homes, Prem Dan and Shanti Dan0

Please continue to pray for all our sisters, especially those serving in the troubled areas of the world. I am deeply grateful to you for sharing in our prayer and work. I pray for each one of you and your families and dear ones.